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I still don't have #128 and it will take some time until i finally get it.
My question to anyone who read the AoW-adventure in 128 -
Is it possible to incorporate some of the stuff from the adventure "Pandemonium in the Veins" of Dungeon#96 in this part of AoW?
I am just curious what you guys think?!
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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I've been mulling over replacing/retrofitting the Champions Belt w/elements of Pandemonium in the Veins myself. I think the biggest problem is that both are pretty plot heavy games and their plots don't mesh too well.
That being said, the organization of the gladitorial events is mostly window dressing. The easiest adaptation would be to swap out the first qualifying match in the Champions Belt for any match from PitV.
Please post if you do end up adopting anything from PitV. I have it on the back burner because I haven't even started my AoW campaign but would like to know how it goes.
Sebastian
Sebastian makes a good point that the two adventures' main plots and sub-plots don't really mesh together... mostly because the adventures have two separate agendas, end-games, and time-lines. However, it should be easy to add parts of Pandemonium in the Veins into The Champion's Belt.
Loris Raknian (from TCB) has been trying for years to find ways to make himself stronger, younger, and immortal. You could play that into Paramezzus's (from PitV) desire to make a drug that he tests on various gladiators, and that Arxus's condition came directly from Paramezzus's experiments, not a death in the arena. It doesn't hurt that Paramezzus worships Erythnul and that Loris Raknian is in league with The Ebon Triad.
The down side to this is that you might have too many plot hooks with not enough time for the PCs to fully investigate, or the players might get side-tracked on a side-quest and miss out on some key points in TCB. But the players might enjoy the gritty feel of PitV, and it could give you a chance to really test their morals. Do they take the "performance enhancing potions" or not?
Alternatively, you could run PitV as a prerequsite for TCB, since the PCs are really un-tested as Gladiators. In this way, you could have the Veins be a smaller arena, separate from the one in TCB, either as a "side court," like in Wimbledon, or just outside the Free City itself.
The down side to that is that the players might get tired of back-to-back gladiator adventures. But maybe it will make sense to them if they know that the PCs can't get to TCB without proving themselves in another arena first. And it will help them build up their gladiator rank, and find out how to run their PCs as a gladiator team before TCB. With some gladiator arena experience, they should be ready for TCB, reducing the chance that they lose in an early match. It would also give you some insight on how well they do in the arena, and what you can do to make things more challenging, if you need to.
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For those who don't know, Pandemonium in the Veins was published in Dungeon #96, an adventure meant to tie in with new gladiator rules presented in Dragon #303. The Dragon issue comes with a nifty minituares-scaled gladiator arena map, and the Dungeon issue comes with a corresponding map of the under-arena area.
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Please post if you do end up adopting anything from PitV. I have it on the back burner because I haven't even started my AoW campaign but would like to know how it goes.
Sebastian
Thanx for your answers, guys!
And yes, I will write here, even if its far away, because I haven't started AoW yet either...Anyway, if I come up with an idea (when #128 arrives) I let you know!
Tom
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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So I started rereading Pandemonium in the Veins last night, and it's better than I remember (and I was pretty darn fond of it in the first place). I am seriously considering taking out the Champions Belt and running PitV instead. If I did, I'd probably run PitV in place of Hall of Harsh Reflections, and then scale Hall of Harsh Reflections up a little.
As far as plot adjustments go, I'm thinking that Auric will participate in PitV and that the villian in the adventure is an agent of Loris working to unleash the ulgurstasta (who will be powered down appropriately). Once the PC's foil that plot, Loris goes into hiding in the sewers and sends his doppleganger agents after the PC's. I'll run the first half of HoHR mostly as written, but probably cut out the mindflayer and his lair and replace them w/the temple to Kyuss and the creatures therein.
Sebastian
That's a fairly clever twist on the sequence of adventures in the adventure path. The PCs defeat the Ebon Triad in Diamond Lake, then directly foil Raknian's plans in the arena. It definately ups the ante for Raknian to take out the PCs.
And if the PCs gain any level of fame from the gladiator arena, the doppleganger doubles could go a long discredit the party members. After they lose their popularity, any trouble the PCs encounter will be like gravy to the people in the Free City.
Like the Green Goblin said, "One thing they love better than heroes is to see them fail..."
I still plan on going through the adventures in order, but I think I will put some of PitV into TCB, along the lines that I put above.